Gift presents: Infant Hair Bows & Headbands

About three months ago I welcomed a new niece into my family.  Of course, I had to make her some bows since I just have a little boy and I've never taken the opportunity to learn how to make bows.  My sister-in-law is not into big flashy pink bows that cover most of the babies head so I had to be creative and do a lot of internet searching to come up with the perfect simple bow for her.  

I followed the basic how-to of small bow making but then played with different versions to make them unique.  

Some of the ribbon I found at fabric & craft stores or at Walmart but I got most of my ribbon off of Ebay.  I was able to get a wide variety of colors and design and quantity within my budget.  I now have so much ribbon that I'm constantly looking for projects to use it with.  I even tied some in my hair for the 4th of July!

Some of the bows I matched with specific outfits that my niece had.  

I tried to incorporate some buttons into the bows but I never was very happy with how they turned out.  

The most recent successful experiment was making a knot in the middle of the bow.  It added a new element to the simple bows.  

Another thing I discovered on my search was fold-over elastic.  I used it to make the headbands.  I could only find this online and got mine on ebay.  It is extremely soft and stretchy elastic that lays smoothly on the baby's head.  I just hot glued the ends together and then had ribbon wrapped around to hide the seam.  It comes in a wide variety of colors as well.

I've seen the white flowers at fabric stores near the ribbon.  I think they add a nice sophisticated touch to the bows.  

This final headband/bow is my absolute favorite.  Unfortunately, I can't take credit for it all.  

My sister-in-law bought a headband similar to this one and decided that it wouldn't be hard to duplicate.  She took two pieces of white ribbon and sewed them together on both edges.  She then put thin elastic through the openings of the ribbon and cinched up the ribbon.  I then sewed the ribbon together with both seams facing one way.  I then took one of the white flowers and carefully looped the purple ribbon around it and held it in place with hot glue over the seam edges to hide the seam.

 

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